Waking Up A Nighttime Hummingbird in Winter Can Be Fatal
- Rewarming is expensive. To become functional, the bird must generate heat through rapid muscle contractions (“shivering”) and then warm itself—this can take a long time (often up to an hour) while it’s groggy and sluggish.
- Forced arousal can be the tipping point. If the bird was already marginal (low fat stores, cold stress, injury, emaciation), burning that extra energy to wake/rewarm can push it into collapse.
- Did you know waking up or disturbing ANY sleeping bird at night and causing it to fly, or prepare to fly, can harm it? To fly, birds must force out the air they’ve stored in their feathers for insulation. If they don’t have the fat or energy to rewarm that air, hypothermia can set in. Keep that in mind the next time you are owling.
Newly Updated – Caring for Winter Hummingbirds:
How They Survive the Cold and When They Need Our Help
